Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Not So Primal Breakfast

I entered a photo of my breakfast in the Primal Breakfast contest over at Mark's Daily Apple. Unfortunately I didn't win the random drawing, but I'm pretty sure my breakfast (a protein bar and a glass of milk) is among the least primal of those pictured. Oh well.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Junior High Cross Country and Yoga Booty Ballet

Tonight after work I drove out to Norwalk to pick up Luke. I got there in time for his pre-season cross country parent's meeting and also the coach allowed me to tag along in practice.

We started with a warm up of about 1/2 mile, then stretching, then several "drills", toe walks, skipping, butt-kicks, and such.

Then she broke the team into groups and sent them out for a 2-mile run at staggered intervals, with the slower runners starting first with the intent that the kids would work on catching the group in front of them.

I ran with 2 boys in the first (slowest) group and they kept up ok, one girl from the next group back almost caught them but that was it.

Then we did 2 "strides" and 4 "sprints" of about 75 meters, and then about 1/4 mile cool down, and then more stretching. Hopefully they will have a good season. Their first meet is in about 1 1/2 weeks.

Then when we got home, Victoria and I did day 1 of Yoga Booty Ballet. YBB is another exercise program from Beachbody, the company that distributes P90X.

Day 1 is watching a 15 minute video describing some basic yoga moves and poses, and then a 10-minute ab workout with a squishy ball. It was no P90X for sure, but the ab workout was ok and it's great to be exercising with my wife!

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Scones, Smoothies, Sweet & Sour Meatballs

A while back I joined the "Team Beachbody" club ... besides increased website access and 10% off the products, you get a "free gift". Well the gift was a small cookbook called "Thin Kitchen"

I'm usually not a cook, plus I am a picky eater, but let me tell you, I have made 3 of the recipes so far and they are awesome! Very well received by the whole family, expecially my wife. (Or maybe she just likes me to take a turn cooking).

Anyhow first I made a batch of Whole-Wheat Cranberry Scones. I took these to a family picnic and everybody made a big deal because I had cooked, well they all got eaten.

Next (tonight) I had some time so I made 2 things. First was Chalene Johnson's Summer Smoothie - calls for OJ, Pineapple, Papaya, Mango, & ice (and optionally protein powder). Well my 3 year old won't touch fruit, but he drank his, calling it a milkshake. My 11 year old daughter is a vegeterian and I worry about her protein, we added the protein powder and she certainly enjoyed it.

The second thing tonight was the main entree - Sweet & Sour Meatballs. I made both the meatballs and the sauce (actually my 12 year old son made the sauce). The sauce was a little too spicy for some in the family, but the picky 3 year old ate about 4 meatballs (in ketchup) and my wife ate enough that her eyes were sweating from the sauce.

Anyhow, if you have the cookbook and haven't used it, use it! If you haven't got it, I'm sure there are other healthy recipes out there but we sure have had success with these!